Application of the Cytosensor microphysiometer to drug discovery.

The Cytosensor microphysiometer uses silicon chip technology to correlate changes in extracellular acidification rates with quantitative changes in cellular metabolism in response to ligand binding to surface receptors. This functional measure of physiology makes the Cytosensor a valuable tool in drug discovery research by allowing application of the instrument to screening of prospective pharmacologically active agents, characterizations of dose responses and structure-activity relationships, and investigation of mechanisms of action.